Help me with a €1000 build (£850)

J_SAMa

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Sep 18, 2012
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Hi all,
This is a build for my friend. The build has to include everything (monitor, headset/speakers, case, keyboard and mouse, etc.). He's going to do 3d modeling (Blender) and play games on it.

Here's what we have in mind now
CPU: AMD FX-8320
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3,1600-8GB KIT
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST1000DM003
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 7870 XT
Case: LanCool PC-K62
PSU: Corsair GS 600
Monitor: ???
Sound System: ???

The current list leaves only around €180 for the monitor and speakers... quite tight. Any ways we can down without introducing bottlenecks? I'm thinking the case could be something cheaper (Silverstone's non-windowed ps06 probably).

Also I heard amd's graphics cards are better for 3d modeling than nvidia?

Sam
 

MJSBLUES

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May 7, 2013
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Don't get that cpu, either get the i5 3570k if you want to overclock, if not get the i5 3550.
for the monitor make sure it's 1920 x 1080.
The motherboard will have a good enough soundcard generally unless you're a musician and have a crazy music setup.
Yeah, I'd keep the graphics card you chose.
 

Robert Schmicker

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Mar 14, 2013
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I'm liking everything you have posted there specially the 8 core processor which will be nice for rendering for 3D applications. I would like to see to be able to maybe move some money around to bump it up to 16gb of ram for rendering but not the end of the world and 8gb should be fine. As for a monitor I suggest an asus 24in. I have the asus vs247P which is their older model but still a very very good monitor and I believe when I bought it, it was around $160USD with a $20USD mail in rebate which made it around $140USD(due to currency rate though, this probably will kill the rest of your budget). A version of this monitor does include speakers which is OK and could get you by for now until you have more funds for better speakers. As for 3d modeling I always heard nvidia's cuda cores would be better but if your 3d application supports OpenCL then I HIGHLY recommend sticking to AMD. And it seems like cheaping out on the case would be the only area you could cut down on or maybe the motherboard depending on your I/O needs. Good Luck!
 

J_SAMa

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Sep 18, 2012
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nope no overclocking, he's no hardcore.
I thought fx 8150 is better than i5? wouldn't 3d modeling benefit from the 8-cores?
and nope, no good sound system is needed, just good visual stuff :)
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i had forgotten about this, but do you think the stock fan that comes with the amd cpu? i know intel's stock fans are quite good, but never tried amd's.
if they are no good then can you recommend a cheap one?
 

MJSBLUES

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May 7, 2013
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The fan will be fine, since they're meant for the stock processor as you said he's not going to overclock it.
 

J_SAMa

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Sep 18, 2012
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I can't seem to find the version with the speakers built in
do you have any other recommendations (under €170)
 

Robert Schmicker

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Mar 14, 2013
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Here is the link to the one I have but with speakers: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J6BIJ8/?tag=extension-kb-20
 

MJSBLUES

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May 7, 2013
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Oops forgot about the CPU problem -

AMD FX-8150 advantages

FMA4 and XOP instructions are enabled on this microprocessor. These extensions are not broadly used in applications yet, but their support should improve in future apps.
The AMD FX-8150 CPU is priced 19% lower than the Core i5-3570K CPU.
The CPU has 6% better price/performance ratio.

Intel Core i5-3570K advantages

The CPU is 60% faster in single-threaded applications.
In multi-threaded programs, the Intel i5-3570K is 7% faster.
Graphics performance of the processor is higher.
The CPU supports F16C instructions, introduced in the recent past. Even though these extensions are not widely used by applications yet, this should improve in future apps.
Besides 4 CPU cores, the Intel Core i5-3570K CPU embeds HD 4000 GPU. This GPU can be used for casual gaming and 3D applications.
Power consumption of the Intel i5-3570K microprocessor is lower.